This little guy is now 14 months old and was given an extra special gift this past year ~ a new heart!

He was diagnosed with hypoplastic left heart syndrome, which is where the left side of the heart is essentially not functional. The ultimate fix for these little ones is a heart transplant, but even then there are other complications that can occur.

Like Roman, most babies born the HLHS have their first surgery within the first few days or weeks of life. This is crucial to save their life, there is a total of 3 surgeries that occur, but a transplant is always on the list.

Roman has developed cataracts as a result of the anti-rejection medication that he has been put on and will have to have surgery this year to remove those, as well as, a heart cath done this coming May to check for rejection of the donor heart.

I wanted to share this from Roman's mother when she wrote about his journey:

The most frightening experience was when Roman started to crash on day 3 of his life. The doctor came in and told us that he had to talk about our boy, and that he was very sick. I had five minutes to see him before they rushed him to Nationwide Children's Hospital. He was blue from head to toe. We had several scary moments, including several coding episodes. However, the happiest day was when we got the phone call that they had found Roman a perfect heart. We will always be grateful for Romans donor family that gave Roman a second chance at life. Bringing Roman home after being inpatient for 7 months was so overwhelming! By far the best day of our lives!!